[ANN] Bitfury is looking for alpha-testers of first chips! FREE MONEY HERE!

[LaserHorse]

Go with the Hakko. Get a decent magnifier too, you'll need it.

Or grab a used Metcal MX500 on ebay and never look back. 
Stylus so agile, auto-off invaluable, heats up so fast ... oh so dreamy.

also - the brass sponge, dry so it cleans without cooling the tip.

[-Redacted-]

I do everything with 0.8 mm chisel tip. But I agree with fpgaminer. Use good solder, and make sure it's fresh. Don't let the flux evaporate, and if you do then wipe tip clean and start again. My favorite solder wire for rework is Multicore crystal 511.

Sonme of us don't have the steadyness of hand we used to, like you young whippersnappers still do.  Did you ever consider taking up brain surgery as a profession?   I think I'd rather just shoot myself than try to use a .8 mm tip on 0402.  Or even just try to hand solder 0402 for that matter - I can't even read print that small these days.  I long for the good old days, when a resistor was a RESISTOR - something you could actually see...  



EDIT:  0,8   8/10ths mm....  Not 8 mm....  really....

[Sitarow]

I do everything with 0.8 mm chisel tip. But I agree with fpgaminer. Use good solder, and make sure it's fresh. Don't let the flux evaporate, and if you do then wipe tip clean and start again. My favorite solder wire for rework is Multicore crystal 511.

I don't know if it has been said however cscape you have been a boon for this community with your open ability to share your experiences and suggested support. This also applies to most that have posted in this thread.

To all you lurkers out there. Take a page out of his book and share with us your success and failures.

[cscape]

0.8 mm not 8 mm And I prefer not to hand solder 0402 (0603 is okay), but use my reflow oven instead.

[intron]

I do everything with 0.8 mm chisel tip. But I agree with fpgaminer. Use good solder, and make sure it's fresh. Don't let the flux evaporate, and if you do then wipe tip clean and start again. My favorite solder wire for rework is Multicore crystal 511.

Sonme of us don't have the steadyness of hand we used to, like you young whippersnappers still do.  Did you ever consider taking up brain surgery as a profession?   I think I'd rather just shoot myself than try to use a .8 mm tip on 0402.  Or even just try to hand solder 0402 for that matter - I can't even read print that small these days.  I long for the good old days, when a resistor was a resistor, and something you could actually see...  



EDIT:  0,8   8/10ths mm....  Not 8 mm....  really....

"Those days when hardware meant hardware
and software wasn't even a word..."

[Gomeler]

I saw a few posts mentioning that October pricing for the Bitfury chips would be announced over the weekend. Does anyone know if a decision was made?

[vs3]

I saw a few posts mentioning that October pricing for the Bitfury chips would be announced over the weekend. Does anyone know if a decision was made?

I guess you're referring to this one:

Hi,
Niko
I've send you a few Emails asking about bulk chip order prices.
Is there any problem ?

Sorry Marto, I'm drowning in emails, just had someone take over the communication for me. We will introduce new chip pricing on the site this weekend.

I'm watching for updates on that too ... I hope they keep up that promise and do finally announce the pricing.
I really hope they won't ruin their so far pretty good reputation and take the Avalon/BFL route with everything happening "in two weeks"

[ssi]

I'm watching for updates on that too ... I hope they keep up that promise and do finally announce the pricing.
I really hope they won't ruin their so far pretty good reputation and take the Avalon/BFL route with everything happening "in two weeks"

I'm getting concerned about that... I've designed a product around prices that were announced months ago and then rescinded, and I've been waiting approaching two weeks for $800 worth of chips that are "sorry they're expensive but they ship immediately" to be shipped.   My whole model depends on chips being available early in October and near the price I expect.  Bitfury chips are great, and I'm thrilled with them so far from a technical standpoint, but there's not enough margin in them if anything goes pear shaped :/

[vs3]

I'm watching for updates on that too ... I hope they keep up that promise and do finally announce the pricing.
I really hope they won't ruin their so far pretty good reputation and take the Avalon/BFL route with everything happening "in two weeks"

I'm getting concerned about that... I've designed a product around prices that were announced months ago and then rescinded, and I've been waiting approaching two weeks for $800 worth of chips that are "sorry they're expensive but they ship immediately" to be shipped.   My whole model depends on chips being available early in October and near the price I expect.  Bitfury chips are great, and I'm thrilled with them so far from a technical standpoint, but there's not enough margin in them if anything goes pear shaped :/

I feel the same way - I bit the bite ($20/chip) and I invested a lot of effort in developing a miner. Then they took the bite away. Now I'm being told that chips won't be available at that price anymore, and even more - if they'll be available at some sensible price at all. So, all of my time went to waste. What a lesson

Given that it takes $10-$20 per chip to produce a finished product, and it would take optimistically speaking a few weeks from ordering of the chips to getting them making money - the last moment when it makes any sense to look at them is early October.
Chips delivered in early October (and start hashing on Nov/1) will make between $20 and $30 in their entire life! (source)
And that's if you have absolutely no expenses and if you get free electricity. And that's if difficulty jumps "only" 80-100% a month (which is becoming a wishful thinking with all of the new ASICs being released now).

If they keep postponing that announcement they may as well just throw all of those chips away. They will be useless after November even if they are free!
My advise to the bitfury team - announce the pricing a.s.a.p. and pick some sensible numbers. $15 in early October, $10 in mid-october and $5 in November. And don't waste your time offering them past that.

[goxed]

Lol... the shopping list is getting longer... those sparkfun guys are going to love me.

The advice/recommendations are very much appreciated.

Hehe since your pictures are good if you wouldn't mind showing what this looks like after you have cut the traces and soldered anything that would be cool.

Just in case I need to do this in the future id like to see how its actually done.

See also this example: (source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=250249.msg3099241#msg3099241)

(although that is a bit of a overkill)

In essence - make a narrow cut (1mm) just enough so that you can visually tell that the traces have been cut apart and that should do it. It is also a good idea to keep the cut relatively small - in case it turns out that this is the wrong chip
(yes - believe me - Murphy's laws were not invented out of boredom!)

Be careful as once you cut the traces it would be relatively easy to grab an end and just peel the entire trace off. That's fine if you're sure you'll never ever need it again (but are you?)

You can also use a small piece of wire (any wire will do) to connect the points. Or make a large slump of solder and bridge them that way. I'd go with a wire though - much easier.

Sorry guys, idle board was money lost so did a quick fix trace cut. Any good tips on how to desolder the chip? looks like it's soldered to the board with the ground pad. I have a 50W Weller soldering station. Is it possible to easily desolder with a soldering iron or do I need hot air tools?

[vs3]

Lol... the shopping list is getting longer... those sparkfun guys are going to love me.

The advice/recommendations are very much appreciated.

Hehe since your pictures are good if you wouldn't mind showing what this looks like after you have cut the traces and soldered anything that would be cool.

Just in case I need to do this in the future id like to see how its actually done.

See also this example: (source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=250249.msg3099241#msg3099241)

(although that is a bit of a overkill)

In essence - make a narrow cut (1mm) just enough so that you can visually tell that the traces have been cut apart and that should do it. It is also a good idea to keep the cut relatively small - in case it turns out that this is the wrong chip
(yes - believe me - Murphy's laws were not invented out of boredom!)

Be careful as once you cut the traces it would be relatively easy to grab an end and just peel the entire trace off. That's fine if you're sure you'll never ever need it again (but are you?)

You can also use a small piece of wire (any wire will do) to connect the points. Or make a large slump of solder and bridge them that way. I'd go with a wire though - much easier.

Sorry guys, idle board was money lost so did a quick fix trace cut. Any good tips on how to desolder the chip? looks like it's soldered to the board with the ground pad. I have a 50W Weller soldering station. Is it possible to easily desolder with a soldering iron or do I need hot air tools?

I don't think it would be an easy task unsoldering it. But then why would you want to do that in the first place? If you short the control signals (SCK/MOSI/MISO) then the chip will be bypassed and may use a bit of power but that's all. If you really want to cut the power - just cut all traces around it. You'll have just the ground pad left but that won't interfere with anything.

[goxed]

I though i could donate the chip to someone in the community.

[LaserHorse]

I though i could donate the chip to someone in the community.

Unfortunately, unless there were solder bridges on the IO pins causing the issue, the chip is likely non-functional.

nice sentiment tho

[Doff]

Lol... the shopping list is getting longer... those sparkfun guys are going to love me.

The advice/recommendations are very much appreciated.

Hehe since your pictures are good if you wouldn't mind showing what this looks like after you have cut the traces and soldered anything that would be cool.

Just in case I need to do this in the future id like to see how its actually done.

See also this example: (source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=250249.msg3099241#msg3099241)

(although that is a bit of a overkill)

In essence - make a narrow cut (1mm) just enough so that you can visually tell that the traces have been cut apart and that should do it. It is also a good idea to keep the cut relatively small - in case it turns out that this is the wrong chip
(yes - believe me - Murphy's laws were not invented out of boredom!)

Be careful as once you cut the traces it would be relatively easy to grab an end and just peel the entire trace off. That's fine if you're sure you'll never ever need it again (but are you?)

You can also use a small piece of wire (any wire will do) to connect the points. Or make a large slump of solder and bridge them that way. I'd go with a wire though - much easier.

Not as difficult as I made it out in my mind. Thanks for the pictures.

Doff

[goxed]

I though i could donate the chip to someone in the community.

Unfortunately, unless there were solder bridges on the IO pins causing the issue, the chip is likely non-functional.

nice sentiment tho

Actually mine was an interesting case. Chip 4 was hashing fine, but was not forwarding SPI . Thus  I  had to cut the traces of Chip 5 first and jump the SPI. Still no fish.
Wish I had a scope . I graduated from the univ, so missing all the nice bench equipment.

So I have potentially 2 hashing chips that could be donated.

[ssi]

I though i could donate the chip to someone in the community.

Unfortunately, unless there were solder bridges on the IO pins causing the issue, the chip is likely non-functional.

nice sentiment tho

Actually mine was an interesting case. Chip 4 was hashing fine, but was not forwarding SPI . Thus  I  had to cut the traces of Chip 5 first and jump the SPI. Still no fish.
Wish I had a scope . I graduated from the univ, so missing all the nice bench equipment.

So I have potentially 2 hashing chips that could be donated.

If you or others are in a position to pull them safely, i definitely could use marginal chips for testing code and heat issues on my miner that I'm working on.

[frejo]

Sorry guys, idle board was money lost so did a quick fix trace cut. Any good tips on how to desolder the chip? looks like it's soldered to the board with the ground pad. I have a 50W Weller soldering station. Is it possible to easily desolder with a soldering iron or do I need hot air tools?

I desoldered some avalon chips using an electric skillet fry pan by just putting the pcb in the pan and lift the chips off when the solder melted.

[vs3]

Project NanoFury moving along too:



I can hardly wait to get my hands on the boards
(ignore the somewhat iffy looking parts - I haven't figured out the proper 3d models yet)

By the way - speaking of filter capacitors: I figured 3 on each side should probably work just fine ... I guess I'll find out if it really does.

Do you have a thread following this development?  I'd like to follow.

Not yet ... I guess I should do that

Note taken -  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=291456
We've just announced the Group Buy + Product Assembly of NanoFury NF1 - BitFury-based USB2.0 miner producing 2GH/s.

For now I'll be posting there all technical updates too.

[ssi]

I'm watching for updates on that too ... I hope they keep up that promise and do finally announce the pricing.
I really hope they won't ruin their so far pretty good reputation and take the Avalon/BFL route with everything happening "in two weeks"

I'm getting concerned about that... I've designed a product around prices that were announced months ago and then rescinded, and I've been waiting approaching two weeks for $800 worth of chips that are "sorry they're expensive but they ship immediately" to be shipped.   My whole model depends on chips being available early in October and near the price I expect.  Bitfury chips are great, and I'm thrilled with them so far from a technical standpoint, but there's not enough margin in them if anything goes pear shaped :/

Chips came today... they shipped when they said they would, it was just the radio silence that had me aflutter I guess...

[vs3]

I'm watching for updates on that too ... I hope they keep up that promise and do finally announce the pricing.
I really hope they won't ruin their so far pretty good reputation and take the Avalon/BFL route with everything happening "in two weeks"

I'm getting concerned about that... I've designed a product around prices that were announced months ago and then rescinded, and I've been waiting approaching two weeks for $800 worth of chips that are "sorry they're expensive but they ship immediately" to be shipped.   My whole model depends on chips being available early in October and near the price I expect.  Bitfury chips are great, and I'm thrilled with them so far from a technical standpoint, but there's not enough margin in them if anything goes pear shaped :/

Chips came today... they shipped when they said they would, it was just the radio silence that had me aflutter I guess...

"Do they have chips" was never the question. Dave mentioned that they have enough in stock that if I wanted a reel I could have it tomorrow.

The question is "price". October chips were initially announced and available at $20/chip. Then the bait was taken away. Now they're $108/chip. AND they keep promising to announce October pricing but so far such thing hasn't happened.

A classic "bait and switch". Very disappointing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait-and-switch

Bait-and-switch is a form of fraud used in retail sales but also employed in other contexts. First, customers are "baited" by merchants' advertising products or services at a low price, but when customers visit the store, they discover that the advertised goods are not available, or the customers are pressured by sales people to consider similar, but higher priced items ("switching").